


Waiting

by Pennatus



Category: The Originals (TV)
Genre: F/M, Introspection, Series Spoilers, post s02ep06 Wheel Inside the Wheel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-16
Updated: 2014-11-16
Packaged: 2018-02-25 13:34:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2623562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pennatus/pseuds/Pennatus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Waiting, Hayley thought, had to be one of the most excruciating tasks ever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Waiting

Waiting, Hayley thought, had to be one of the most excruciating tasks ever. Not that she really wanted to agree with Klaus but...

Elijah's face was smooth, none of the usual lines or expressions, his strong jawline softened by the laxness and his eyelashes resting delicately against his cheeks. He looked young, perhaps as young as he was when he had been turned. He looked strange in the white shirt Hayley had wrestled onto him, after taking his other clothing off and wiping the blood from his face. It hadn't seemed right, leaving him like that, pale underneath the blood with the stains creating brilliant works of art on his clothing.

Klaus had simply left after laying him down and Hayley felt a surge of the usual anger. But then she remembered the gentleness with which he pulled back the hair from his brother's eyes, the fury in every line of his posture as he'd stared at Elijah. It was bitterly hypocritical, that concern, yet she was beginning to understand Klaus had very few ways of showing his siblings he cared, and many ways of showing them who was in control. Still didn't stop her from feeling angry, though.

Hayley hesitated, then reached out and placed a hand over Elijah's. His skin was cool to the touch and Hayley swallowed thickly. She'd never thought of Elijah as cold. He always seemed this fierce heat to her. An unwavering loyalty, a deep concern for those he cared about, a self-sacrificing nature...those were the traits that made that slow fire in his system burn, that Hayley hoped would bring him back in one piece.

She thought about when they first met. It seemed like an eternity ago now. She admitted his love for him then was a little bit of a girl's fantasy. Klaus, who wanted nothing to do with her, who had played her and cast her away. Then suddenly there was Elijah, who looked at her with such compassion, who looked upon her enemies with calculating hatred, who had been kind and polite to her. His impeccable manner had only sold the facade of "white knight".

But Elijah was an Original. He'd seen his share of suffering and pain and was broken inside, just like the rest of them. She could hardly believe this war that had been raging for over a thousand years. She'd thought Klaus had been crazy when he spoke of killing their father with such glee but now she understood. Was this what family was like? She didn't think so. She remembered the warm feeling of being with the wolves out in the bayou, the comfort and security. Then she remembered where they were now: placed against each other on either side of a vicious battlefield, manipulated by a witch that only used her kind as fodder. Maybe the Mikaelsons had been happy once, but the passing of the years had created a rift between them, and there was too much distance now to ever be mended.

Her thoughts flashed over to Marcel, still stranded across the river, driven from the Quarter, re-establishing his community. Maybe he had the right idea. He had left the Mikaelsons behind to forge a new life, a new family, of his own.

Hayley squeezed Elijah's cold, cold fingers. When he woke, she imagined they'd be back to their on-again off-again dynamic. She couldn't control these emotions inside and she hated it, hated herself, hated what she had become. She hated how the wolves looked at her and shunned her, she hated how the vampires all feared her, she hated the hatred. Elijah - had never looked at her differently. He didn't try to offer words of comfort or security because he knew how difficult her struggle was. She'd lashed out at him, seen the hurt flash across his face, and feel a gleeful pleasure at his pain. A short lived pleasure, though. Soon enough she'd be back to tearing heads off, the warm blood soothing the seething mess inside her, at least until she saw Elijah again and was reminded of a better time.

Maybe, in his own way, Elijah was trying to say that there still were better times. That she couldn't let the monster she'd become control who she truly was. They said that becoming a vampire drew out a person's true nature. Was this her nature? This bloodlust and pain?

She'd thought the look in Elijah's eyes when he saw her was pity. Then she thought about the turns his life had taken. His mother and father, trying to kill him and his siblings...his brother, betraying him at every turn...Celeste. What a mess that had been. When he'd mentioned he'd only loved twice in his life, the agony in his voice told Hayley neither had ended well. Maybe it wasn't pity he'd been looking at her with, but fear. 

Because she believed Elijah was strong, but she was still afraid. She feared what Ester had done to him - what she was still doing to him. She feared what he would be like when he woke up. She feared Klaus's retaliation would only bring them more enemies and alienate allies. She feared the wolves were too enthralled with their new power to remember what their true values and morals were. She feared she was creating a world where she would never be able to hold her child and not worry about bringing her into this war.

And she feared...Elijah never waking up, lying there forever, looking peaceful and quiet and so, so wrong.

"Please, Elijah," she whispered. "Wake up. I want to yell at you again. I want to see you in your stupid suit. I want...you."

But nothing happened.

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea how the next episode is going to play out, but I like to imagine that the uncertainty of Elijah and his state of mind once he wakes up is enough to make Hayley rethink some of what she's said/done to Elijah. Anyways, this is just my interpretation on it. Hope you enjoyed! (And who's excited to see what a hot mess Elijah is once he wakes up?!? Whoo!)


End file.
